This past summer, we at Maiden Wave Energy were honored to be selected as the top winner of the Powering the Blue Economy™: Ocean Observing Prize competition. This joint initiative by the Department of Energy: Water Power Technologies Office and Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®) program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has an objective of creating an ocean observing platform, free from the limitations and restrictions of battery powered systems. It is important to understand our oceans to predict hurricane intensities, understand fish migrations, support weather predictions and much more. With 80% of our oceans being unmapped and unexplored, we are greatly limited in progressing our understanding of the ocean by the battery reliant equipment currently being used to collect ocean data.
Maiden Wave Energy’s boat, the WEPAB-7, is able to host an array of ocean observing sensors, without the restrictions of being powered by batteries because this platform utilizes wave energy conversion technology. With that, WEPAB-7 is able to extract energy from passing ocean waves, and converts that kinetic energy into electrical energy to power it’s onboard systems. This provides the WEPAB-7 the ability to remain at sea for longer, collecting more data, with less downtime caused by depleted batteries.
To find out more, be sure to check out NREL’s Ocean Observing Competition Article and the Department of Energy’s Competition overview
